Sololoquy User's Manual

Introduction

Sololoquy is a 10HP high-fidelity programmable clickless 4:1 sequential switch/MUX/muter/mixer with live performance in mind.

Buttons can be quickly programmed to operate in momentary or toggle fashion with normal or inverted polarities to perfectly match your playing preferences. All settings are automatically saved.

The Sololoquy can process both AC and DC signals with near zero error which makes it suitable for switching precision signals.

You can clock the Sololoquy to gate signals or sequence the inputs through a pattern you create.

You can sync multiple Sololoquys together or use MIDI to simultaneously control multiple paths in parallel for more complex routings and greater control of a patch.

All Rabid Elephant instruments are professionally hand-crafted products built and designed to exceptionally high standards of performance and quality for many decades of reliable use.

While we've packed a lot of features inside, Sololoquy is intuitive and easy to use. It's recommended to play along as you skim this manual. We limit 'menu depth' for any of our products to no more than two total 'layers.' Both function layers are clearly marked on the panel so we hope this manual is largely unnecessary after spending a short time with your Sololoquy.

Installation

Install the power cable to your power distribution with correct polarity. -12V is blue in colour. We do not follow the 'red strip on the ribbon cable is -12V' designation as this convention is not consistent and disagrees with the widely accepted standard of blue being negative and red being positive. We chose to follow this accepted standard.

Overview

This is the Sololoquy:

The 4 inputs are selected and passed to the output using any of the following selection methods:

Buttons: For manually picking which of the 4 inputs are active.

CV IN signal: The voltage of the CV IN waveform chooses which of the 4 inputs are to be active.

CLK SEQuence: Each positive clock edge moves to the next input in the sequence.

Synced to other Sololoquys: Allow remote control of any sync'd Sololoquys from any Sololoquy.

MIDI: Remote control via MIDI note messages.

Input on/off states are gated by the CLK input when the CLK switch is active. The CLK button may also be used to start and stop the playing of a user-programmed sequence pattern (when 'CLK SEQ' is enabled).

The Sololoquy has a layer of alternate functions which are accessed by holding the ACTION and POL buttons down simultaneously. The ALT menu functions are shown on the panel in blue.

When in SOLO mode the Sololoquy will only allow one input at a time to be passed to the output. When in MIX mode, the Sololoquy will allow any combination of inputs to be on/off at any one time (inputs are summed at unity gain). You get back to SOLO mode by disabling MIX mode via the ALT function menu.

The CV SEL mode allows a signal at the CV IN jack to automatically select inputs.

The QUANTISE mode keeps button presses sync'd to the CLK edges so you can play the Sololoquy in time with your clock.

Please note, the terms toggle and momentary come from physical switch terminology. Since we wanted these programmabilities to be applied to more than just the physical buttons on the Sololoquy, all selection methods (excluding MIDI & SYNC) follow the programmed action and polarities.

Input Selection

As mentioned in the overview section, inputs are selected using one of five methods; these are called selection methods:

Manually with the 1, 2, 3, 4 buttons

CV IN signal

When sequenced via the CLK INput

When synced to another Sololoquy

MIDI Note messages

Keep in mind, most of these selection methods can be programmed to be inverted polarity or operate as either toggle or momentary action. SYNC and MIDI selection methods do NOT follow these programmings.

A quick example: if you press button 1 programmed with normal polarity and momentary action, you would have to hold the button for the signal to be passed from Input 1 to the output. As soon as you let go, the signal will not be passed to the output. More details are found in the programming section.

Let's go over each of the selection methods now...

Button Selection

Press a button and the corresponding input is passed to the output. The corresponding LED will illuminate

CV Selection

The CV INput is used for selecting which of the inputs are active from a CV source, such as an LFO. Since there are many sources you probably want to connect to the CV INput with different amplitudes, we've added an auto ranging feature. See 'Setting CV Range' for details.

You can unplug the CV IN to retain full manual select control; Sololoquy detects when something is plugged into the CV IN jack. You can also leave the cable plugged in and disable CV control by holding the ALT buttons simultaneously and pressing the CV EN button (button 2) so the light is off.

The EOS/TRANS output will fire a trigger whenever a transition is made between zones.

Setting CV Range

Since many folks, including ourselves, quickly find limitations with a fixed CV range (some modules do not output -2.5 to +2.5V signals... think EGs and the likes), we added the ability to automatically remap the CV IN range to whatever you want.

To teach the Sololoquy the range of the signal you wish to use, feed it your desired signal at the CV IN jack and hold the CV RANGE button. The Sololoquy needs to detect the min and max peaks of the waveform. If it's too slow, it's not really an issue but you (and the Sololoquy) will have to wait for the whole waveform to cycle. Also make sure it's not too small (it should be more than 0.5V peak to peak (polarity doesn't matter).

The Sololoquy will read your CV signal and automatically re-range the CV IN. Now your CV signal will be mapped equally full-scale so it can select all of the inputs. You can also do some interesting 'cheats' by not letting a full period of the signal run before releasing the switch - this will allow 'offsetting' the range - if you start doing this you're getting some fancy new space pants. If your CV signal exceeds the programmed range, the min and max values will be clipped, which can also be exploited.

CLK Selection

The clock input can work in one of two ways: as a gate signal which gates (mutes) any active selection or as a sequencer.

CLK Gate

The CLK pushbutton enables the CLK - this switch has to be on (if programmed as toggle action) or held in (if programmed as momentary action, normal polarity), then the desired input (selected via some selection input) is 'gated' following the CLK signal. CLK Gate is not considered a selection input, really, since it doesn't actually select specific inputs to be passed to the output.

If you have nothing present on the CLK INput and the CLK button is active, it's possible you wont hear/see anything - so be careful of those cases. TIP: With nothing plugged into CLK, you can think of this as a global muter.

CLK Sequencing

You can also use the clock input to sequence selection of inputs. Each clock edge will move sequence one step ahead.

To change the sequence pattern, hold the SEQ button and simply press the switches in the order you want to the sequence to progress. Use the CLK button to add a blank step (no inputs active). You can make any sequence up to 32 steps in length. The sequence length is controlled by how many buttons you press before releasing the SEQ button.

The sequence will wrap around back to the beginning when it reaches the end.

When clock sequencing is active, the CV IN/RST can be used to reset the sequence back to step 1. The EOS/TRANS (EOS = End Of Sequence) output will fire a trigger when the sequence ends.

SYNC and MIDI selection methods are covered in the advanced section.

Programming

Polarity and action can be quickly programmed so that you can interface with the Sololoquy as your needs require. Polarity determines whether a selection input activates or deactivates the selected input upon selection event. Action programs whether a selection input acts in toggle or momentary mode. To change this, just hold the action or polarity button down and press the button corresponding to the input number you wish to reprogram.

NOTE: polarity and action do not apply to SYNC and MIDI selection inputs. Polarity does not apply to toggle programmed selection inputs.

It Hurts I Want My Mommy

If you want to reset the Sololoquy back how we birthed it, hold both ALT FCN buttons along with the CLK button during power up. Everything will blink and everything will be set back to factory defaults. The factory defaults are:

All Action: Toggle

All Polarity: Normal

Mode: Solo

CV SELect: Disabled

CLK SEQuence: Disabled

SEQuence: Empty

QUANTISE: Disabled

SYNC: Disabled

MIDI: Disabled

Button 1: C4

Button 2: D4

Button 3: E4

Button 4: F4

CLK Button: G4

Advanced Features

We've added the following advanced features to the Sololoquy...

SYNCing Multiple Sololoquys

You can sync a bunch of Sololoquys together. This adds poles to your switch and will allow all Sololoquys to be synced together. Two Sololoquys gives you a DP4T switch. Three gives you a 3P4T switch - and so on.

All Sololoquys are connected via the sync headers on the back of the PCB in a round-robin fashion. You can operate any of the synced Sololoquys from the front panel and all the rest will follow. There are no masters and there are no slaves.

SYNCing with MIDI

This Sololoquy has all the MIDI control software and hardware built-in. We offer a separate MIDI expansion module (or cable) for this purpose. Contact us if you need the expansion hardware. The Sololoquy inputs are activated with MIDI Note messages on the appropriate MIDI channel.

First set the desired MIDI Channel by powering the Sololoquy on while holding button 4. You can let go when the button blinks. Now select the desired MIDI channel using buttons 1, 2, 3, and 4. It is binary coded with button 1 being the LSB. If you don't know what that means, just use the following table:

TBD

Note that any other input selections made will follow a most recent priority scheme. Whatever selection is made most recently will take precedence.

Logic Power Selection

To accommodate users without a system that has a +5V rail, you can select where the Sololoquy obtains its logic power from. The Sololoquy ships, from the factory, with this jumper in the +V setting which means it obtains logic power from the +V rail. If you have a +5V rail, you are encouraged to put this jumper in the +5V setting!

Warranty and Repair

Warranty

Rabid Elephant, LLC. warrants the product and accessories contained in the original packaging against defects in materials and workmanship for normal use for a period of 5 years after the original purchase date.

The warranty does not include normal aging or wear, cosmetic damage, including but not limited to scratches, dents, etc. It does not include damage caused by accident, misuse, abuse, fire, liquids, or other non-typical external sources. It does not include damage imparted on the product due to incompatibilities with non Rabid Elephant products. It also does not include coverage of damages caused by modification, tampering, or repair of Rabid Elephant products by non Rabid Elephant employees (adjustments, if covered in the User's Manual are allowed and will not void this warranty).

Repair

We will make every attempt to repair any of our products and make a considerable effort to ensure our products do not end up in a landfill. We will not indiscretionarily discard/replace the module. If your module is damaged, please contact us at: repairs@rabidelephant.com. If covered under warranty, your module repairs will be covered free of charge. If your module is damaged and it is not covered under warranty, please contact us at: repairs@rabidelephant.com.